Meet Fiona Johnson…

Every bird’s got to leave the nest, but sometimes they need a little push. Or a three-toed kick in the arse. That’s what my friend Fiona gave me back in March when I wrote “The Last Sacrament,” and wondered if I should submit it anywhere. She told me to, gave me suggestions, and I got my first publication.

A short while later this fine judge of good writing asked me if I thought she should submit her own stories. Now, I’d been reading her tales of Gemma the Scottish police investigator for some time, drawn in by their gritty reality and Gemma herself, a fiercely alive character you should drop by Fiona’s blog- or Shotgun Honey- to meet. So I got to return that kick in the arse. I’m not sure if she believed me, or if it took our mutual friend Kate, but she’s got two great stories in The Flash Fiction Offensive and Shotgun Honey, venues that keep getting better.

Fiona is interviewed today at Sea Minor, the blog of Nigel Bird, a fine writer himself. Please drop by. She gives me a great shout-out, but honestly, I’m sending you that way in the hopes you’ll read her stories “Saying Goodbye” at TFFO and “Hard as Nails” at Shotgun Honey, and see what a talent she has. If crime stories aren’t your game, “Saying Goodbye” is as good a coming of age tale as I’ve read in a long while. Read her now, so you can give a smug sniff a few years from now when Gemma stars in the gritty procedural from Scotland that everyone is scrambling to read.

2 thoughts on “Meet Fiona Johnson…”

That's fantastic!! I love this writing community and meeting great people like you guys makes it all worth while. Top job, Tommy.

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Thomas Pluck has slung hash, trained in martial arts in America and Japan, worked on the docks, and even swept the Guggenheim museum (but not as part of a clever heist). He hails from Nutley, New Jersey, the birthplace of criminal masterminds Martha Stewart and Richard Blake, but has so far evaded capture. He remains a fugitive with his wife Sarah and their two cats.